


Once (Still Waiting)

by Chimchimchanga



Series: Touch My Gray Heart Gold [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Drabble, Fluff, I think it's angst at least?, Longing, Love at First Sight, M/M, One Shot, POV Alternating, Short, TaeDo, dotae, non-idols, super duper short lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:29:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23416756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chimchimchanga/pseuds/Chimchimchanga
Summary: Two strangers entwined their paths with a glance, crossing their hearts together.
Relationships: Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Lee Taeyong
Series: Touch My Gray Heart Gold [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1684420
Comments: 7
Kudos: 20





	1. I Love You, Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> this is garbage dotae love at first sight wish fufillment and i dont care

_Once_.

The times that Taeyong has been in love, in all his young years of life. Once. Once in his years both long like the legs of a dancer dragging out a spin to a final note and years short like the hasty breaths of lovers at night. 

He owed all his dancing notes and loving breaths to that man, his once-love, that glimpse on a gray night that plunged his heart into a whirling of color, running rife with every hue the sky might ever show. 

He’d seen him on a day where Seoul had turned to mist, it’s characteristic skyscrapers as gloomy pillars indistinct from the huge swaths of fog that lumbered past in agonizing inches on heavy feet. Every curtain was drawn, the city folk dragons hoarding light in their homes like gold. The denizens unlucky enough to be about in a day cold as this were huddled into gowns of padded coats, so long that the tips almost brushed the sidewalk stones, or squinting desperately for a glare of red taxi light turned pink by the haze of ashen smog that blanketed the roads. 

He had stepped out and shivered as the air hit him in pinpricks of ice, meaning to complete some unimportant errand or chore, now long forgotten in the brilliance of the meeting that followed. 

It was over in a second, in a blink of an eye, a beat of a heart. A face on the other side of the sidewalk emerged from brume and his breath was stopped in his chest, hard and compressed into a lump in his throat as he tried to call out to the man. His shining dark hair, brighter than any lamppost that could line a street, fell in waves across his forehead to frame what surely must be the most regal features known to humankind with such a perfect, high nose and almond eyes, long and round and clear. 

_What is your name, stranger? Who are you, stranger? How, stranger, have I met you out of millions, my perfect dream?_

_Where are you, stranger?_

For the man was gone, fog engulfing him yet again. Taeyong had lost, lost to the flighty temperament of such thick smog. He was rooted to the ground, he couldn’t lift his feet, move, run to the spot he’d seen that man and gasp out the request for his name. He tried to shout, but Seoul was Seoul, and cars and taxis and sirens run and run and run and blare and blare and blare, Taeyong’s voice lost among them as the lights turned green and cars suddenly sped past them, a flurry of sleek black and white figures rushing past. 

And so Taeyong stood, dumbstruck until his nose was frosted from the dull winter air, wondering at the man who’d crossed his path. 


	2. And He Looked Forever

_Still waiting._

Doyoung might have been in love, once. Might. For how could he know, bring out his heart and declare it won, when the only flutters it had ever felt were those precious seconds all that time ago? 

Perhaps he had been in love once. Perhaps he’d never be, but those dear moments were frozen in time, each frame of that man’s movements cataloged like a film reel in shaky gray and black and white, just like the day they met. 

Doyoung had been out on a walk, savoring the relative peace that such an inhospitable day could bring to even a city like Seoul who stacked its inhabitants like rats in cages and roared with life, bones built of noise just as solidly as concrete and steel. The kind of hustle and bustle so distinctive to Seoul, the quick-exchanged words and swift-discarded cigarettes, smoked to stubs and ditched in shady corners where building met building. 

Making his way, alone, hands shoved in his coat pockets, nothing on his mind but the dull drone of modernity that ran throughout all of the city he called home, Doyoung turned a corner to face a still street, strangely desolate of vehicles, populated only by clouds of fog. 

And then, an angel. A man’s face, shocking in its beauty, appeared out of the fog as it parted. Pale, pearly white skin that glowed against the monotonous gray that covered everything like soot, a hint of pink lips like a blooming flower in snow, and doll eyes, wide as a captive doe’s as he caught sight of Doyoung. 

He wanted to call out. Ask his name, his hand. But he couldn’t. The streets had filled again with screaming cars and buses to obscure his view of the man, ignoring the red string of fate that had been visible, just for a single tick of a clock. And Doyoung remained in a stupor like the one the day's fog had cast upon all of Seoul, slow-moving and numb to any brush of fate, the drum of hot blood rushing in his ears drowning out the world. 

_Still waiting._ He'd wait and wait and wait, as long as the universe willed him to. He'd wait for that angel until Hell itself came down and brought him back to that day to offer another look, another chance, to his waiting love. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comment, kudos, subscribe if you liked it! I love you for voluntarily reading my trash fantasies <3

**Author's Note:**

> no clue if this is even remotely decent or not T.T  
> anyway, i hope you liked this short fic ! comment and kudos if you did!


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